HCC board approves faculty, staff raises

April 19, 2006|by TIFFANY ARNOLD

Faculty and staff at Hagerstown Community College will receive raises next year.

During its monthly meeting Tuesday, the college's Board of Trustees agreed to increase the median salaries on all of its pay scales by 4.5 percent. The trustees will increase all of the school's pay scales by 2 percent.

The board also agreed to change the way it calculates salary increases.

"So that someone coming in won't be making more money than someone else doing the exact same job," board chairman Merle Elliott said.

The pay raises nearly mirror a report issued to the board last month recommending a 4 percent to 5 percent increase for median salaries and a 2 percent increase in the pay scales.

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Elliott said the changes would help HCC remain competitive.

According to the report, HCC employees make less money than employees at other community colleges and Washington County Public Schools.

On average, the median salary for HCC professors is $66,251, about 2 percent less than what is offered at other community colleges in Maryland, the report said.

Associate professors make about $52,163, or 8 percent less than their counterparts at other schools, and assistant professors, who make about $44,733, are paid 10 percent less, the report said.

Judith Peisen, chair of the mathematics and science division, said she hoped the new formula would work in everyone's favor.

"For years and years and years, the midpoint never moved," Peisen said during the meeting. "We used to call it the pink line. The pink line never moved, and so everybody kept getting closer and closer, and their raises kept getting smaller."